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Google Workspace Updates

This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.

  1. Hide tiles without video during Google Meet calls

    What’s changing 

    We’ve added the option to layouts, so that users can change their layouts to avoid cluttering the screen if they are interested to only see the participants with their videos on. This option can help reduce screen clutter and focus on video-enabled participants, meanwhile users with their videos off can be shown on screen if they speak . Note that this feature, same as other layouts options, is only specific to your meeting view and does not impact what other participants see or set for their layouts during the meeting.


    To hide non-video tiles, go to Settings > Change layout > Hide tiles without video.


    Getting started


    Rollout pace


    Availability

    • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts 

    Resources



  2. Introducing AppSheet Organizations

    What’s changing 

    We’re making it easier to manage your AppSheet users with the introduction of AppSheet Organizations. An AppSheet organization creates organization administrators with a centralized tool to manage all of the teams in the organization and delegate team management responsibilities to team administrators. 

    This chart shows the hierarchical relationship between an organization, and its teams and members. 




    An organization is based on a Workspace organization and is tied to your primary domain. One organization can contain multiple teams based on Google groups and Workspace organizations.


    Who’s impacted

    Admins


    Why you’d use it

    AppSheet organizations significantly simplify the management of users and policies across all their AppSheet teams. Admins can:
    • Access self-serve tools to make changes that formerly required manual Support team intervention.
    • Create and manage organization-level policies that apply to all teams and manage individual team policies.
    • Create new teams with distinct admins, users and policies as needed. Admins can also independently assign or remove team, root, or organization administrator roles of any user.


    Additional details

    Support for non-Google authenticated users
    For new and existing customers with AppSheet Organizations, any user from your verified primary or secondary domains that does not authenticate through Google will be shown in your domain-based teams alongside any group-based teams that have been created. These users will be subject to the same policies and team settings that apply to your users that authenticate through Google.


    Getting started


    Rollout pace



    Availability


    Resources


  3. Google Meet increases support for ultra-low latency live streaming to the first 25,000 viewers

    What’s changing 

    For Google Workspace editions that support 100,000 viewers, we’re increasing the availability of the Google Meet ultra-low latency viewing experience for live streamed meetings from the first 10,000 viewers to the first 25,000 viewers. All additional viewers will have the standard live streaming experience. This update is available for live streams within your organization on web and mobile. 


    With the ultra-low latency viewing experience, you’ll notice improvements such as a virtually lag-free streaming experience, significantly increased speaker video resolution, improved automatic camera cuts that focus on the most relevant speakers and content, and more. For more information about the ultra-low latency viewing experience, check out our original announcement as well as a recent announcement with more information about improvements.


    Getting started

    • Admins:Visit our Help Center for more information turning live streaming on or off for Meet.
    • End users: When enabled by your admin, use the Help Center to learn more about live streaming a video meeting. 
      • Viewers: You can join streams as before. Reactions, polls and live Q&A work just as they do in a regular Meet video meeting. Visit the Help Center to learn more about viewing a live stream.
      • Live stream hosts: Live streams are scheduled and managed just like before. Reactions, polls and live Q&A are integrated with the Meet call and managed like usual. Automatic camera cuts are triggered by speaker activity without any host action required.

    Rollout pace

    Availability

    • Live streaming is available for Google Workspace:
      • Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus 
      • Enterprise Essentials Plus 
      • EducationPlus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade
    • Live streamed meetings can be viewed by Google Workspace:
      • BusinessStarter, Standard, and Plus
      • Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus 
      • EducationFundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade
      • Essentials Starter and Essentials users.
    • Not available to users with personal Google accounts.
    Note: For some customers, these changes may roll out at a slower rate and they may not receive this update for several months.



  4. Available in open beta: Build AppSheet automations using Google Forms

    This announcement was part ofGoogle Cloud Next ‘24. Visit theWorkspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.

    What’s changing

    AppSheet helps users automate manual workflows by integrating with data sources like Google Drive and Sheets, and today we’re excited to announce its integration with another data collection tool in Workspace: Google Forms.


    Many companies rely on the data collected via form submissions when they are performing tasks for ticketing or incident reporting. However, prior to today you could only view information from form submissions via email, spreadsheet, or in the Forms app itself.


    With this update, Google Forms submissions can act as event triggers within AppSheet Automations. These automations can then take many different actions, such as sending notifications or approval requests to Gmail or Google Chat, or even calling a custom Apps Script function. 
    Build AppSheet automations using Google Forms is now available in beta


    Who’s impacted 

    Admins, end users and developers 


    Why you’d use it 

    This integration enables users to receive actionable notifications based on responses to Google Forms.


    Getting started 

    • Admins: 
      • AppSheet admins can use AppSheet’s Policy Engine to control access to this feature by App Creators in their organization. Visit the Help Center to learn more about policy enforcement in AppSheet policies and specific guidance on preventing app creators from using Google Forms. 
      • This feature is available as an open beta, which means AppSheet app creators can use it without enrolling in a specific beta program. 
    • Developers and end users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about building automations using Google Forms. 

    Rollout pace 


    Availability 

    Available for Google Workspace: 
    • Business Starter, Standard, Plus 
    • Enterprise Standard, Plus 
    • Enterprise Essentials Plus 
    • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade 
    • FrontlineStarter, Standard 
    • AppSheet Starter, Core, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus 

    Resources 

  5. Configure managed iOS apps for your users using Google Mobile Device Management

    What’s changing 

    Directly from the Admin console, admins can remotely set custom configs for managed iOS apps on end-user devices for their enterprise using Google Mobile Device Management. Managed configurations are applied using XML property lists and the same app can be configured differently across different domains, groups, or organizational units (OUs).

    Creating the app configuration using XML information


    Applying the configuration



    Who’s impacted

    Admins and end users


    Why it’s important

    Prior to this update, mobile app configuration was only available for managed Android devices. Beginning today, Workspace admins can use Managed App Configuration to set custom app configurations and deploy them to manage iOS devices across their organization. This gives admins the flexibility they need to create safety parameters that align with the various needs of users across their organization.




    Getting started


    Rollout pace


    Availability


  6. Updated keyboard shortcuts and first-letters navigation now available on Google Drive web

    What’s changing 

    Google Drive is designed to work with keyboards, screen readers, braille devices, screen magnification, and more. Today, we’re excited to improve the accessibility of Google Drive by enabling first-letters navigation. 


    First-letters navigation enables users to quickly and easily navigate a list of items in Drive via keypress. Users can move focus within a file list in Drive by pressing the first letter(s) of the file's name. Pressing the same letter again will navigate to the next item starting with that letter. 


    In order to support first-letters navigation on Drive, we are migrating the existing single-letter shortcuts on Drive to multi-key shortcuts. 
    First-letters navigation in Drive



    Additional details 

    Starting today, you can begin opting into the new shortcuts immediately through a banner notification in Drive or by going to Drive > Settings > Keyboard shortcuts > Update now. On August 1, 2024, Drive keyboard shortcuts will be automatically updated to first-letters navigation for all users. Once shortcuts are updated, you will also be able to see shortcuts where applicable in menus and on hover in toolbars in Drive. 


    Getting started 


    Rollout pace 

     

    Availability 

    • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 

    Resources 

  7. Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - April 26, 2024

    3 New updates

    Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.


    Customizable Home tab for Google Chat apps 
    Recently, we announced the availability of the "Home" tab for Google Chat apps through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. This feature allows developers to create a new tab in their Chat apps, known as “App Home”. App home can be customized to display user-specific dashboards, a list of open items and tasks, and more. We’re excited to announce this is now generally available for Google Workspace developers. | Rollout to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about sending an app home card message for a Google Chat app.
    Customizable Home tab for Google Chat apps

    Create Looker Studio reports from Google Sheets 
    Looker Studio enables users to quickly build interactive reports and dashboards, and starting today they can now be created directly from Google Sheets. More specifically, users can: 
    • Pick which sheet or cell range to use in the generated report on Looker Studio. 
    • Transform the data in Sheets to an automatically generated Looker Studio report in a single click, and save and share the report with an individual or a team. 
    The Looker Studio report remains connected to the Sheet, and can be refreshed to reflect data updates. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn how to create a Looker Studio report from Google Sheets. 

    Create Looker Studio reports from Google Sheets

    Export Gemini data for users in your organization 
    Super admins can now export all of their users Gemini data, including prompts and Gemini’s responses to those prompts. Expanding takeout to include Gemini data continues to ensure that our customers have control over their organization’s data in order to manage their data privacy and compliance needs. | Rollout to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Business add-on, as well as those customers with Gemini (gemini.google.com) enabled for their users. | Learn more about exporting Gemini data, exporting all of your organization’s data, and exporting data by organizational unit, group, or user. Additionally, you can use the Help Center to learn more about allowing your users to download their data.





    Previous announcements

    The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.


    External participants can now join Google Meet client-side encrypted calls 
    We’re enhancing the experience for client-side encrypted Google Meet calls to include support for inviting external participants, including users without a Google account. | Learn more about external participants joining CSE Meet calls. 


    Client-side encryption can now be selected as a data loss prevention condition 
    You can now use client-side encryption as a condition for a data loss prevention (DLP) rule. | Learn more about the DLP rule. 


    Seamlessly transfer between devices during a Google Meet call 
    You can now smoothly transfer between devices while on a Google Meet call without hanging up and rejoining. | Learn more about transferring between devices during a Google Meet call. 


    Import data from Slack to Google Chat using CloudFuze 
    With the CloudFuze integration, you can move messages and memberships from Slack channels into Chat spaces. CloudFuze also imports data while maintaining historical timestamps to ensure users can start using spaces right where they left off. | Learn more about Google Chat and CloudFuze.


    Get notified about application load failures for your Google Meet Hardware devices 
    You can now opt-in to receive email or text message notifications when application load failures occur. Subscribing to alerts can help you stay on-top of what’s happening across your hardware fleet and quickly take action to resolve these issues. | Learn more about application load failure notifications.


    Workspace Data Protection rules are now available for Gmail in Beta
    Launching first to beta, we’re introducing data loss prevention rules for Gmail. Data protection rules help admins and security experts build a stronger framework around sensitive data to prevent personal or proprietary information from ending up in the wrong hands. | Learn more about Data Protection rules.



    Completed rollouts

    The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


    Rapid Release Domains: 
    Scheduled Release Domains: 
    Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

    For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).   

  8. Workspace Data Protection rules are now available for Gmail in Beta

    What’s changing 

    Launching first to beta, we’re introducing data loss prevention rules for Gmail. Data protection rules help admins and security experts build a stronger framework around sensitive data to prevent personal or proprietary information from ending up in the wrong hands. This functionality is already available in Google Chat and Google Drive, and in Gmail you’ll be able to create, implement, and investigate rules in the same manner. 


    Admins can create data protection rules to flag sensitive information from using your organization. These rules are applied to outgoing messages sent internally or externally and admins can choose whether all content (including attached files and images), the body of the email, email headers, or subject lines should be scanned. You can configure your rules to look for sensitive text strings, custom detectors, or select predefined detectors. If a message violates a rule, admins can choose to:

    • Block message — the sender will receive a notification about message delivery failure and more information about the policy they violated.
    • Quarantine message — the message will require review and approval by an admin before delivery. If the message is rejected by an admin, the user may receive a notification about it.
    • Audit only — the message is delivered, but it is captured in rule log events for further analysis. This is particularly advantageous because it allows admins to assess the impact of rules before introducing them to your end users.

    Data loss prevention for Gmail are available for select Google Workspace customers (see the “Availability” section below) — no additional sign-up is required to use the feature. 

    Create data protection policies for Gmail alongside Drive and Chat

    Build flexible conditions with selection of predefined and custom detectors of sensitive information

    Set up a rule with Audit Only action applied to messages sent outside of organization. The severity level for event logging is set up to ‘Medium’ and alerting via Alert Center is turned on 

    Detailed information about the event in the Alert Center

    Overview of DLP incidents in the Security Dashboard with further option to investigate audit logs in detail

    Who’s impacted

    Admins and end users



    Why it’s important


    In addition to detecting sensitive content, DLP in Gmail offers additional benefits such as:

    • Simplified deployment and data protection policies management with rules for Gmail, Drive and Google Chat unified into the same area and workflow.
    • Advanced detection policies with flexible conditions, wide selection of predefined detectors for global and regional information types, custom detectors (Regular Expressions and word lists), targeting on specific parts of a message (header, subject, body). 
    • Granular configuration of policies scope, defining sender audiences (at domain, OU, and group levels) and recipient audiences (internal, external, both).
    • Actions with various levels of restrictionsuch as block delivery of message (Block), quarantine message for review (Quarantine), and log event for future audit (Audit only).
    • Tools for incident management and investigationsuch as the Alert Center, Security Dashboard and Security Investigation Tool.



    Additional details

    How does DLP in Gmail compare to Content Compliance rules?
    Content compliance in Gmail does offer similar functionality in that you can create rules to prevent messages that contain specific content from being sent. However, unlike DLP in Gmail, admins have no way to preview the impact of these rules before deploying them broadly.


    Further, content compliance offers a variety of features that are better suited for filtering content. For example, you can:
    • Set up a metadata match on a range of IP addresses, and quarantine messages from IP addresses outside of the range.
    • Route messages with content that matches specific text strings or patterns to a specific department, suited the best to process information.


    Getting started

    • Admins: 
      • Data loss prevention rules can be configured at the domain, OU, or group level. DLP rules can be enabled in Gmail in the Admin console under Security > Access and data control > Data protection. Visit the Help Center to learn more about controlling sensitive data shared in Gmail.
        • Note that you can modify existing DLP rules for Drive and Chat to also apply to Gmail. 
      • DLP events can be reviewed in the Security Investigation Tool or Security > Alert Center, if alerts are configured in rules.


      • We recommend selecting “Audit only” when you’re setting up a rule. When selected, messages that match the conditions of a rule will be delivered with the detection being logged. This allows you to rest new rules and monitor their performance, or to passively monitor the  environment without interrupting email flow for your users.

      • Note on asynchronous and synchronous scanning: With DLP for Gmail, data protection rules are scanned asynchronously, which means that the message is blocked or quarantined after it leaves the sender’s mailbox and before being dispatched to the recipient. We’re working on the ability to scan data protection rules synchronously when a user hits “Send” in order to notify users about sensitive content before the message leaves their mailbox. 


      • Please share your feedback on this feature with us — this will help us continue to improve the experience as we move through beta and toward general availability. You can share your feedback by selecting the “Send feedback” button located in the bottom left corner of your screen of any data protection related page in the Admin console.


    • End users:When configured by your admins, you’ll be notified if your message contains information that violates a DLP rule

    Rollout pace


    Availability

    Available to Google Workspace:
    • EnterpriseStandard, Enterprise Plus
    • EducationFundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade
    • Frontline Standard
    • Cloud Identity Premium customers

  9. Get notified about application load failures for your Google Meet Hardware devices

    What’s changing 

    As part of an ongoing series of improvements for managing Google Meet hardware devices, we recently announced that we would begin capturing application load failures across Meet hardware devices. Beginning today, you can now opt-in to receive email or text message notifications when these failures occur. Subscribing to alerts can help you stay on-top of what’s happening across your hardware fleet and quickly take action to resolve these issues.


    Getting started


    Rollout pace

    • Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 25, 2024. We anticipate rollout to take around six weeks to complete.

    Availability

  10. Import data from Slack to Google Chat using CloudFuze

    What’s changing

    We recently announced the ability to import data from other messaging platforms using the Google Chat API. To build upon this, we’re excited to announce a new migration solution from CloudFuze that enables you to import data from Slack into Google Chat. 

    With this integration, you can move messages and memberships from Slack channels into Chat spaces. CloudFuze also imports data while maintaining historical timestamps to ensure users can start using spaces right where they left off.
    Import data from Slack to Google Chat using CloudFuze


    Who’s impacted 

    Admins and developers 


    Why you’d use it 

    Developed in collaboration with Google Workspace, CloudFuze imports your knowledge repository from Slack into Google Chat. 


    Additional details 

    To import user data from other messaging platforms into Google Chat, please review the original blog post on how to create a Chat app to migrate data. 

    Visit the CloudFuze resource page to learn more about user integrity preservation, optimum Cloud Authentication, migration security and more. 


    Getting started 


    Rollout pace 


    Availability 

    • Available to all Google Workspace customers. Note that a separate CloudFuze licensing is required to enable data migrations. 

    Resources